Raiah Theron

Half-Elf/Human, AKA ‘The Seeker’

Appearance

Raiah is described as a light-brown skinned, medium-height, slender Half-Elf bombshell with a dirty-blonde undercut. What stands out almost immediately is the uncovered patch of scarred skin where her right eye was, and the faded marked of Vecna on her right hand. Raiah walks with an air of flirty confidence about her and a soft, velvety voice. Her colleagues say it's all a front for the real her. That the moment Raiah steps into the interrogation room, a switch goes on. A stern, insightful tone picks her victim apart like she already knows all their secrets and is playing a chess game with them. Trying to see what it is that will make them break. Raiah doesn't break bones or flay skin or pick fingernails, not right away. She is a woman of information and blackmail. Looks don't kill, but Raiah does.

Backstory

Early Life in Hadleigh

Raiah was born with a curved spine and partial facial paralysis due to a cleft lip. This gave her a speech impediment and earned her the cruel nickname “r*tard” by the other children. Raiah’s appearance made it hard to play with other children who threw mud and stone at her, mocked her speech, and made oinking noises at her when they passed her on the street. The western borough of the city of Hadleigh, Hammersmith, was home to thousands of homeless and impoverished people forgotten by the city. Rather than band together, some turned on one another, it wasn’t enough to just be poor, maybe you were an elf, or maybe you were deformed. This intersectionality would allow for the killings of one Benjamin Barker to go so unnoticed for so long. It’s the same culture that allowed a man like Benjamin Barker to go about his business, that turned Raiah away, right into Ben’s arms. When Raiah wasn’t at Ben’s barbershop helping him sweep, she was watching the pigs eat slop. Raiah admired the plump, pink farm animal for their simplicity. They ate food and minded their own business. Being compared to pigs for as long as she had, Raiah hung around them. They were the only creatures in Hammersmith that didn’t care about the way she looked.

When Ben and his accomplice had been caught and killed for his crimes, Raiah was left with the traumatic image of slashing his accomplice’s throat in a fit of rage. It was somewhere in that moment, Raiah felt a warm, powerful feeling come over her. To finally take power and take revenge. It terrified Raiah. Despite being absolved of any wrong-doing, Raiah and her parents were forced out of Hadleigh. The whole borough was calling her a butcher, not convinced she had no idea as to what Ben was doing. So Raiah and her family moved to Val-Adin, where Raiah promised to turn her life around and find purpose in the military.

The Military Pt. 1

Raiah’s first two years in Val-Adin were spent training for the entrance exams into the Expeditionary Force, the first branch of Elvish military. They were your guards, scouts, and desk jockeys. Raiah stuck to a heavily regimented diet and workout regiment set for her by the proctor overseeing her progress. The sudden change in her lifestyle and body, had taken a severe impact on Raiah’s mental health. All she ever saw when she looked in the mirror, was the fat, misshapen pig all the kids saw back at Hadleigh. She took matters of her weight into her own hands. A month before her exams, Raiah’s eating disorder had taken its toll on her body as she collapsed in the middle of the street on her way home from school. The proctor deemed her mentally and physically unfit to take the exam. Raiah had failed before she even begun.

The Eye of Vecna

Somewhere between her arrival into Val-Adin and her second attempt at the entrance exams, Raiah had an encounter with Vecna. The details of the encounter are unclear, but it ended in a new face and body for Raiah, but at the cost of her eye.

The Military Pt. 2

Raiah’s new transformation shocked her family and friends. The details of it disturbed them deeply, but nobody questioned it. Raiah had reregistered for the military, but instead shot straight for the Jaeger Corp, a branch of military where less than 2% of men and women are actually accepted. She had a new routine, a new diet, and had tested in the top five percentile of entrants on the first exam. Raiah’s tenacity paid off when she was accepted as a cadet, and would be given a chance to prove her worth to the greatest, most commended warriors in the High-Elf military. What stood out about Raiah wasn’t just her endurance, but how she tested in feats of mental endurance. Where the proctor was concerned, the Jaeger Corp saw potential for an interrogation-based career path for Raiah. What the proctor called, borderline PTSD-induced psychosis, the Jaeger Corp called a knack for doing what was needed. Raiah graduated top of her class at the Jaeger Corp, and earned her tan-beret.

Croak and Dagger

The Archery Tournament

In their first encounter with Croak and Dagger, Raiah and Elvira attended the Liberator's Day festival in Meadowcraft to represent the High Elves of Val-Adin. While Elvira was butting heads with Clymene and Atalanta, Raiah was less abrasive, and even looked forward to seeing Clymene in the Archery Tournament. Favored to win, Raiah was an exceptional marksman and athlete. Nobody was surprised when she made it to the three-man battle royale. What did surprise people, was when she lost the sudden-death standoff to none other than Clymene. For all her training, agility, and pin-point precision, Raiah's confidence got the best of her against a Wood Elf nobody knew.

Cataclysm

In the days leading up to Caelrogh's invasion, Raiah made a few appearances around Meadowcraft. Her interactions with them were limited to being awkwardly hit on. Before the defense of Halfaya Pass, Raiah pursued a strictly sexual relationship with Aiden Thorin, though Aiden seems to have something more serious in mind. When Croak and Dagger later took hold of Halfaya Pass, they found Raiah held prisoner in its belly. Well, not so much being held prisoner, more in the process of breaking out and bouncing knives off walls and into skulls. Raiah told them she had been captured by Loghain's men when she was ordered by Elvira to make contact with anyone at the pass. Unsure of what fate befell her commander, Raiah is working with Croak and Dagger to take control back of the territory around the pass.

Abilities

Supernatural Vision. Raiah's eye gives her the ability to see through low-level illusions, walls, and even detect when someone is lying.

Flawless Precision. Aided by her vision, Raiah ricochets her weapons at her targets off ceilings, floors, walls, tables, shields, anything with a solid surface, with pinpoint accuracy.

Improvised Weapon Specialist. When her knives are running low, Raiah resorts to using every day objects to get the job done. Have you ever seen someone die from a cup to the chest?

Relationships

Aiden "Aiden, if you're reading this, mind your own business! But, Aiden is sweet. He tries very hard to make sure I'm happy, and when I'm not he's good for a shoulder to just lean on. There isn't any pressure to do anything between us. It's nice. I'm so used to having to dress up or play a part with my old boyfriends, but not with Aiden. He makes me feel...seen, I guess is the word for it? On nights when I'm not feeling particularly happy with my body or mental health, Aiden just sits there with me. He's sweet. Well, more than that. But let's just go with sweet for now. I don't need to inflate his ego any more than I have haha... "

Andol "Speaking of egos, Aiden's new brother has quite the ego. I've learned to just give those two room when they're scheming lest you get sucked into their bullshittery. Aiden is usually quite serious when out in the field, so having Andol around to help me balance Aiden out is really nice."

Elvira "The Commander is one of the most selfless, hardened people I know. Her rise to her station was all I ever read about as a little girl. When I first tried joining the Jaeger Corp, she sat me down and said she'd personally see to it that I am tested twice as hard. Now I see why. Everyone is so used to that cold icy stare the Commander has, but I see her. The books she reads, the loss she feels, and the pressure she's put under from that lovely brother and father of hers. The world has a way of trying to squash women like us down."

Lyra "Lyra and I got into it over...something. She had some choice words about the way I carry myself, so here's some for her. Hey, Lyra? Nobody is buying the hurt, twee-hippie bullshit. Go ahead and play another obscure song while you seek the approval you so desperately crave. Any problems you have with me can be filed directly in person, sweetheart."

Maribelle "Maribelle is one of the most unapologetic people I know. She stands by what she does, as morally grey as they may be, and doesn't make excuses for herself. I wish I had that confidence growing up. She's someone I wouldn't mind grabbing a drink with."